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11-25  11.4   11.6 


Hiotographic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

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Collection  de 
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Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


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Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  at  bibliographiques 


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|2Vjl    Cou 


Coloured  covers/ 

verture  de  couleur 


□    Covers  damaged/ 
Couverture  endommag6e 

□    Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaur6e  et/ou  pellicul6e 

□    Cover  title  missing/      7 
Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 


D 
D 
D 
D 
D 


D 


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Coloured  maps/ 

Cartes  gSographiques  en  couleur 

Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

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Pages  d6color§es,  tachet6es  ou  piqu6es 


^ 


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Transparence 

I      I    Quality  of  print  varies/ 


Quality  in^gale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  material/ 
Comprend  du  mat§riel  supplementaira 


n 


Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Edition  disponible 

Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
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obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  film6  au  taux  de  r6duction  indiqu6  ci-dessous. 


10X 

14X 

18X 

22X 

26X 

30X 

! 

X 

lam 

16X 

20X 

24X 

28X 

32X 

( 

■  -tfiiiiaiBwiitoife--* 


ils 

u 

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age 


The  copy  filmed  here  has  been  reproduced  thanks 
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g^nirositi  de: 

Library  of  Congress 
Photoduplication  Service 

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plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  nettetA  de  t'exempiaire  film6,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  'ront  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  -^(meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 

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different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Les  exemplaires  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  imprim^e  sont  film6s  en  commenpant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  selon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  film6s  en  commenqant  par  la 
premidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  darnidre  page  qui  comporte  une  teile 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
dernidre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbold  — ►  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbole  V  signifie  "FIN  ". 

Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  dtre 
film68  d  des  taux  de  rMuction  diff6rents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  cliche,  il  est  filmd  d  partir 
de  Tangle  sup6rieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  n6cessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
lllustrent  la  m6thode. 


rata 

D 


telure, 

id 


D 


32X 


1  2  3 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

I. 


j  I 


i       *yi- 


Reprinted  from  The  Astropkysical  Journal,  Vol.  VI,  No.  4,  November  1897 


ASPECTS  OF  AMERICAPf  ASTRONOMY 


© 


SIMON  NEWCOMB 


k  -• 


CHICAGO 

CT^e  Qtnfbtrsftfi  of  <S|)fcaso  ¥1:^00 
1897 


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ASPECTS  OF  AMERICAN  ASTRONOMY.' 

By  Simon  New  COM  n.  ' 

The  University  of  Chicago  yesterday  accepted  one  of  the 
most  munificent  gifts  ever  made  for  the  promotion  of  any  single 
science  and  with  appropriate  ceremonies  dedicated  it  to  the 
increase  of  our  knowledge  of  the  heavenly  bodies. 

The  president  of  your  university  has  done  me  the  honor  of 
inviting  me  to  supplement  what  was  said  on  that  occasion  by 
some  remarks  of  a  more  general  nature  suggested  by  the  cele- 
bration. One  is  naturally  disposed  to  say  first  what  is  upper- 
most in  his  mind.  At  the  present  moment  this  will  naturally  be 
the  general  impression  made  by  what  has  been  seen  and  heard. 
The  ceremonies  were  attended,  not  only  by  a  remarkable  dele- 
gation of  citizens,  but  by  a  number  of  visiting  astronomers, 
which  seems  large  when  we  consider  that  the  profession  itself 
is  not  at  all  numerous  in  any  country.  As  one  of  these,  your 
guests,  I  am  sure  that  I  give  expression  only  to  their  unan- 
imous sentiment  in  saying  that  we  have  been  extremely  gratified 
in  many  ways  by  all  that  we  have  seen  and  heard.  The  mere 
fact  of  so  munificent  a  gift  to  science  cannot  but  excite  univer- 
sal admiration.  We  knew  well  enough  that  it  was  nothing  more 
than  might  have  been  expected  from  the  public  spirit  of  this 
great  West ;  but  the  first  view  of  a  towering  snow  peak  is  none 
the  less  impressive  because  you  have  learned  in  your  geography 
how  many  feet  high  it  is,  and  great  acts  are  none  the  less  admir- 
able because  they  correspond  to  what  you  have  heard  and  read, 
and  might  therefore  be  led  to  expect. 

The  next  gratifying  feature  is  the  great  public  interest 
excited  by  the  occasion.  That  the  opening  of  a  purely  scien- 
tific institution  should  have  led  so  large  an  assemblage  of  citi- 
zens to  devote  an  entire  day,  including  a  long  journey  by  rail, 

•  Address  delivered  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  Oct.  22,  1897,  'i  connection 
with  the  dedication  of  the  Yerkes  Observatory. 

289 


290 


SIMON  NEWCOMB 


to  the  celebration  of  yesterday  is  something  most  suggestive 
from  its  unfamiliarity.  A  great  many  scientific  establishments 
have  been  inaugurated  during  the  last  half  century,  but  if  on  any 
such  occasion  so  large  a  body  of  citizens  has  gone  so  great  a 
distance  to  take  part  in  the  inauguration  the  fact  has  at  the 
moment  escaped  from  my  mind. 

That  the  interest  thus  shown  is  net  confined  to  the  hun- 
dreds of  attendants,  but  must  be  shared  by  your  great  public,  is 
shown  by  the  unfailing  barometer  of  journalism.  Here  we  have 
a  field  in  which  the  nonsurvival  of  the  unfit  is  the  rule  in  its 
most  ruthless  form  ;  the  journals  that  we  see  and  read  are  merely 
the  fortunate  few  of  a  countless  number,  dead  and  forgotten, 
that  did  not  know  what  the  public  wanted  to  read  about.  The 
eagerness  shown  by  the  representatives  of  your  pressm  record- 
ing everthing  your  guests  would  say  was  accompuSied  by  an 
enterprise  in  making  known  everything  that  occurred  and,  in 
case  of  an  emergency  requiring  a  heroic  measure,  what  did  not 
occur,  showing  that  smart  journalists  of  the  East  must  have  learned 
their  trade,  or  at  least  breathed  their  inspiration  in  these  regions. 
I  think  it  was  some  twenty  years  since  1  told  a  European  friend 
that  the  eighth  wonder  of  the  world  was  a  Chicago  daily  news- 
paper. Since  that  time  the  course  of  journalistic  enterprise  has 
been  in  the  reverse  direction,  to  that  of  the  course  of  empire  east- 
ward, instead  of  westward. 

It  has  been  sometimes  said  —  wrongfully  I  think  —  that  sci- 
entific men  form  a  mutual  admiration  society.  One  feature  of  the 
occasion  made  me  feel  that  we,  your  guests,  ought  then  and 
there  to  have  organized  such  a  society,  and  forthwith  proceeded 
to  business  —  this  feature  consisted  in  the  conferences  on  almost 
every  branch  of  astronomy  by  which  the  celebration  of  yester- 
day was  preceded.  The  fact  that  beyond  the  acceptance  of  a 
graceful  comp'irnent  I  contributed  nothing  to  these  conferences 
relieves  me  from  the  charge  of  bias  or  self-assertion  in  saying 
that  they  gave  me  a  new  and  most  inspiring  view  of  the  energy 
now  being  expended  in  research  by  the  younger  generation  of 
astronomers.     All  the  experience  of  the  past  leads  us  to  believe 


*j 


rfi 


ASPKCrS  OF  .IMKR/CAX  AS7KOi\'OMV 


291 


that  this  energy  will  rcip  the  reward  which  nature  always  bestows 
upon  those  who  seek  her  acciuaintance  from  unselfish  motives. 
In  one  way  it  might  appear  that  little  was  to  be  learned  from  a 
meeting  like  that  of  the  jiresent  week  —  each  astronomer  may 
know  bv  publications  pertaining  to  the  science  what  all  the  oth- 
ers are  doing.  But  knowledge,  obtained  in  this  way,  has  a 
sort  of  abstractness  about  it  a  little  like  our  knowledge  of  the 
progress  of  civilization  in  japan,  or  of  the  great  extent  of  the 
Australian  continent.  It  was,  therefore,  a  most  happy  thought 
on  the  part  of  your  authorities  to  bring  together  the  largest  pos- 
sible number  of  visiting  astronomers  from  Kurope  as  well  as 
America,  in  order  that  each  might  see,  through  the  attrition  of 
personal  contact,  what  progress  the  others  were  making  in  their 
researches.  To  the  visitors  at  least  I  am  sure  that  the  result  of 
this  meeting  has  been  extremely  gratifying.  They  earnestly 
hope,  one  and  all,  that  the  callers  of  the  conference  will  not 
themselves  be  more  disappointed  in  its  results;  that  however 
little  they  may  have  actually  to  learn  of  methods  and  results, 
they  will  feel  stimulated  to  well  directed  efforts  and  find  them- 
selves inspired  by  thoughts  which,  however  familiar,  will  now  be 
more  easily  worked  out. 

We  may  pass  from  the  aspects  of  the  case  as  seen  by  the 
strictly  professional  class  to  those  general  aspects  fitted  to  excite 
the  attention  of  the  great  public.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
the  latter  it  may  well  appear  that  the  most  striking  feature  of 
the  celebration  is  the  great  amount  of  effort  which  it  shows  to 
be  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  a  field  quite  outside  the  ordi- 
nary range  of  human  interests. 

A  little  more  than  two  centuries  ago  Huyghens  prefaced 
an  account  of  his  discoveries  on  the  planet  Saturn  with  the 
remark  that  many,  even  among  the  learned,  might  think  he  had 
been  devoting  to  things  too  distant  to  interest  mankind  an 
amount  of  studv  which  would  Better  have  been  devoted  to  sub- 
jects of  more  immediate  concern.  It  must  be  admitted  that  this 
fear  has  not  deterred  succeeding  astronomers  from  pursuing 
their  studies.     The  enthusiastic  students  whom  we  see  around 


j^.^ii'-'X',i'i.ji'MijnL«:i«iJj.i.jm»"i' 


292 


SJAfON  NEWCOMB 


us  are  only  a  detachment  from  an  army  of  investigators  who,  in 
many  parts  of  the  world,  are  seeking  to  explore  the  mysteries  of 
creation.  Why  so  great  an  expenditure  of  energy  ?  Certainly 
not  to  gain  wealth,  for  astronomy  is  perhaps  the  one  field  of 
scientific  work  which,  in  our  expressive  modern  j)hrase,  "  has  no 
money  in  it."  It  is  true  that  the  great  practical  use  of  astro- 
nomical science  to  the  country  and  the  world  in  affording  us  the 
means  of  determining  positions  on  land  and  at  sea  is  frecjuently 
pointed  out.  It  is  said  that  an  Astronomer  Royal  of  England 
once  calculated  that  every  meridian  observation  of  the  Moon 
made  at  Greenwich  was  worth  a  pound  sterling,  on  account  of 
the  help  it  would  afford  to  the  navigation  of  the  ocean.  An 
accurate  map  of  the  United  .States  cannot  be  constructed  with- 
out astronomical  observations  at  numerous  points  scattered  over 
the  whole  country,  aided  by  data  which  great  observatories  have 
been  accumulating  for  more  than  a  century,  and  must  continue 
to  accumulate  in  the  future. 

But  neither  the  measurement  of  the  Karth,  the  making  of 
maps,  nor  the  aid  of  the  navigator  is  the  main  object  which  the 
astronomers  of  today  have  in  view.  If  they  do  not  quite  share 
the  sentiment  of  that  eminent  mathematician,  who  is  said  to  have 
thanked  God  that  his  science  was  one  which  could  not  be  prosti- 
tuted to  any  useful  purpose,  they  still  know  well  that  to  keep 
utilitarian  objects  in  view  would  only  prove  a  handicap  on  their 
efforts.  Consequently,  they  never  ask  in  what  way  their  science 
is  going  to  benefit  mankind. 

As  the  great  captain  of  industry  is  moved  by  the  love  of 
wealth,  and  the  politician  by  the  love  of  power,  so  the  astrono- 
mer is  moved  by  the  love  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake,  and  not 
for  the  sake  of  its  application.  Yet  he  is  proud  to  know  that  his 
science  has  been  worth  more  to  mankind  than  it  has  cost.  He 
does  not  value  its  results  merely  as  a  means  of  crossing  the  ocean 
or  mapping  the  country,  for  he  feels  that  man  does  not  live  by 
bread  alone.  If  it  is  not  more  than  bread  to  know  the  place  we 
occupy  in  the  universe,  it  is  certainly  something  which  we  should 
place  not  far  behind  the   means   of  subsistence.     That   we  now 


ASPKCrs  ()/■■  ./.l/AAVr./A'  .IS//^'(>.\(>A/\ 


^9^ 


look  upon  a  comet  as  .suinftliiiiL,^  vitv  interesting;,  ol  wliieli  tlu' 
sij,rht  alTords  us  a  pleasure  uninixed  witli  tear  of  war,  pestilence, 
or  other  ealaniitv,  and  of  wliicli  we  tliereforc  wish  tin-  return,  is 
a  ,i,^ain  we  cannot  measure  b\  nionev.  In  all  a^es  astronomy  lias 
been  an  index  to  the  civilization  of  the  people  who  cultivated 
it.  It  has  l)cen  crude  or  exact,  cnlij,dUened  or  mingled  with 
superstition,  according  to  the  current  mode  of  thought.  When 
once  men  understand  the  relation  of  the  planet  0,1  which  thev 
dwell  to  the  universe  at  large,  su|)erstition  is  iloomed  to  speedv 
extinction.     This  alone  is  an  object  worth  more  than  money. 

Astronomy  may  fairly  claim  to  be  that  science  which 
transcends  all  others  in  its  demands  upon  the  practical  applica- 
tion of  our  reasoning  powers.  Look  at  the  stars  that  stud  the 
heavens  on  a  clear  evening.  What  more  hopeless  problem  to 
one  confined  to  earth  than  that  of  determining  their  varying  dis- 
tances, their  motions,  and  their  physical  constitution  ?  Every- 
thing on  earth  we  can  handle  and  investigate.  But  how  investi- 
gate that  which  is  ever  beyond  our  reach,  on  which  we  can  never 
make  an  experiment  ?  On  certain  occasions  we  see  the  Moon 
pass  in  front  of  the  Sun  and  hide  it  from  our  eyes.  To  an 
observer  a  few  miles  away  the  Sun  was  not  entirely  hidden,  for 
the  shadow  of  the  Moon  in  a  total  eclipse  is  rarely  one  hundred 
miles  wide.  On  another  continent  no  eclipse  at  all  may  have 
been  visible.  Who  shall  take  a  map  of  the  world  and  mark  upon 
it  the  line  on  which  the  Moon's  shadow  will  travel  during  some 
eclipse  a  hundred  years  hence  ?  Who  shall  map  out  the  orbits 
of  the  heavenly  bodies  as  they  are  going  to  appear  in  a  hundred 
thousand  years?  How  shall  we  ever  know  of  what  chemical  ele- 
ments the  Sun  and  the  stars  are  made?  All  this  has  been  done, 
but  not  by  the  intellect  of  any  one  man.  The  road  to  the  stars 
has  been  opened  only  by  the  efforts  of  many  generations  of 
mathematicians  and  observers,  each  of  whom  began  where  his 
predecessor  had  left  off.  We  have  reached  a  certain  stage  where 
we  know  much  about  the  heavenly  bodies. 

We  have  mapped  out  our  solar  system  with  great  precision. 
But  how  with  that  great  universe  of  millions  of  stars  in  which 


'I 


( 


294 


S/AfON  NKWCOMIi 


our  solar  system  is  only  a  speck  of  star  dust,  a  speck  which  a 
traveler  through  the  vvilils  of  s|)ace  might  pass  a  hundred  times 
without  notice  ?  We  have  learned  much  about  this  universe, 
though  our  knowledge  of  it  is  still  dim.  We  sec  it  as  a  traveler  on 
a  mountain  top  sees  a  distant  city  in  a  cloud  of  mist,  by  a  few 
specks  of  glimmering  light  from  steeples  or  roofs.  We  want 
to  know  more  about  it,  its  origin  and  its  destiny  ;  its  limits  in 
time  and  space,  if  it  has  any  ;  what  function  it  serves  in  the  uni- 
versal economy.  The  journey  is  U)ng,  yet  we  want,  in  knowl- 
edge at  least,  to  reach  the  stars.  Hence  we  build  observatories 
and  train  observers  and  investigators.  Slow  indeed  is  |)rogress 
in  the  solution  of  the  greatest  of  problems,  when  measured  by 
what  we  want  to  know.  Some  (juestions  may  renuire  centuries, 
others  thousands  of  years  for  their  answer.  And  yet  never  was 
progress  more  ra|)id  than  during  our  time.  In  some  direction* 
our  astronomers  of  today  are  out  of  sight  of  those  cf  fifty  \  cars 
ago  ;  we  are  even  gaining  heights  which,  twenty  years  ago, 
looked  hopeless.  Never  before  had  the  .astronomer  so  much 
work,  good,  hard,  yet  hopeful  work  before  him  as  today.  He  who 
is  leaving  the  stage  feels  that  he  has  only  begun,  and  must  leave 
his  successors  with  more  to  do  than  his  j)redecessors  left  him. 

To  us  an  interesting  feai.irc  of  this  progress  is  the  part 
taken  in  it  by  our  own  country.  The  science  of  our  day,  it  is 
true,  is  of  no  country.  Yet.  vvc  very  appropriately  speak  of 
American  science  from  the  fact  that  our  traditional  reputation 
has  not  been  that  of  a  people  deej)ly  interested  in  the  higher 
branches  of  intellectual  work.  Men  yet  living  can  remember 
when  in  the  eyes  of  the  universal  church  of  learning  all  cisat- 
lantic countries,  our  own  incluciv   .,  vi ere  partes  infidelium. 

Yet  American  astronomy  is  not  entirely  of  our  generation. 
In  the  middle  of  the  last  century  Professor  Winthrop,  of  Har- 
vard, was  an  industrious  observer  of  eclipses  and  kindred  phe- 
nomena, whose  work  was  recorded  in  the  transactions  of  learned 
societies.  But  the  greatest  astronomical  activity  during  our 
colonial  period  was  that  called  out  by  the  transit  of  Venus  in 
1769,  which  was  visible  in  this  country.     A  committee  of  the 


ASJ>KC'IS  DF  AA/J:RIC.L\  ASIh'OXOMV 


295 


Ami-rican  l'hilosn|)Iucal  Society,  at  lMiilaclcl|)liia,  orgaiiizccl  an 
excellent  system  ui  ubservatioiis,  wliicli  we  now  know  to  have 
been  fully  as  successful,  perhaps  more  so,  than  the  majority  of 
those  made  on  other  continents,  uwinjr  mainly  to  the  advantages 
of  air  and  climate.  Anions  the  observers  was  the  celebrated 
Rittenhouse,  to  whom  is  due  the  distinction  of  having  been  the 
first  American  astronomer  whose  work  has  an  important  place 
in  the  history  of  the  science.  In  addition  to  the  observations 
which  he  has  left  us,  he  was  the  first  inventor  or  proposer  of  the 
collimating  telescope,  an  instrument  whitli  has  become  almost  a 
necessity  wherever  accurate  observations  are  made.  The  fact 
that  the  subsetpient  invention  bv  Bessel  was  ([uite  independent, 
does  not  detract  from  the  merits  ot     ithcr. 

Shortly  after  the  transit  of  Veniia,  which  1  have  mentioned, 
the  War  of  the  Revolution  commenced.  The  srcneration  which 
carried  on  that  war,  and  tli  loUowing  nii  j  which  formed  our 
constitution  and  laid  the  buses  of  oui  political  institutions,  were 
naturally  too  much  occupied  wit);  these  yreat  problems  to  pay 
much  attention  to  prre  science.  While  the  great  mathf;matical 
i  stronomers  of  Europe  were  laying  Uie  foundation  of  celestial 
mechanics  their  meetings  were  a  sealed  book  to  cvervone  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  so  remained  until  Howditch  appeared, 
early  in  the  present  century.  His  translation  of  the  Mecanique 
Ci'lestc  made  an  epoch  in  American  science  by  bringing  the  great 
work  of  Laplace  down  to  the  reach  of  the  best  American  stu- 
dents of  his  time. 

American  astronomers  must  always  honor  the  names  of 
Rittenhouse  and  Bowditch.  And  yet,  in  one  respect,  their  work 
was  disi  ppointing  of  results.  Neither  of  them  was  the  founder 
of  a  school.  Rittenhouse  left  no  successor  to  carry  on  his  work. 
The  help  which  Bowditch  afforded  his  generation  was  invaluable 
to  isolated  students  who,  here  and  there,  dived  alone  and  unaided 
into  the  mysteries  of  the  celestial  motions.  His  work  was  not 
mainly  in  the  field  of  observational  astronomy,  and  therefore 
did  not  materially  influence  that  branch  of  the  science.  In  1832 
Professor  Airy,  afterward  Astronomer  Royal  of  England,  made  a 


-"SB" 


mmmtmmmmitlmmm 


u 


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ig6 


SrMOX  NEirCOMB 


report  to  the  British  Association  on  the  condition  of  practical 
astronomy  in  various  countries.  In  this  report  he  remarked  that 
he  was  unahle  to  say  anything  about  American  astronomy 
because,  so  nir  as  he  knew,  no  public  observatory  existed  in  the 
United  States. 

William  C.  Bond,  afterward  famous  as  the  first  director  of 
Harvard  Observatory,  was  at  that  time  making  observations 
with  a  small  telescope,  first  near  Boston,  and  afterward  at  Cam- 
bridge. But  with  so  meager  an  outfit,  his  establishment  could 
scarcely  lay  claim  to  being  an  astronomical  observatory,  and  it 
was  not  surprising  if  Airy  did  not  know  anything  of  his  modest 

efforts. 

If  at  this  time  Professor  Airy  had  extended  his  investigations 
into  yet  another  field,  with  a  view  of  determining  the  prospects 
for  a  great  city  at  the  site  of  Fort  Dearborn,  on  the  southern 
shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  he  would  have  seen  as  little  prospect 
of  civic  growth  in  that  region  as  of  a  great  development  of 
astronomy  in  the  United  States  at  large.  A  plat  of  the  proposed 
town  of  Chicago  had  been  i)repared  two  years  before,  when  the 
place  contained  perhaps  half  a  dozen  families.  In  the  same 
month  in  which  Professor  Airy  made  his  report,  August  1832, 
the  people  of  that  place,  then  numbering  twenty-eight  voters, 
decided  to  become  incorporated,  and  selected  five  trustees  to 
carry  on  their  government. 

In  1837  a  city  charter  was  obtained  from  the  legislature  of 
Illinois.  The  growth  of  this  infant  city,  then  small  even  for  an 
infant,  into  the  great  commercial  metropolis  of  the  West,  has 
been  the  just'pride  of  its  people  and  the  wonder  of  the  world. 
1  mention  it  now  because  of  a  remarkable  coincidence.  With 
this  civic  growth  has  quietly  gone  on  another,  little  noted  by 
the  great  world,  and  yet  in  its  way  equally  wonderful  and 
equally  gratifying  to  the  pride  of  those  who  measure  greatness 
by  intellectual  progress.  If  it  be  true  that  in  nature  nothing  is 
great  but  man  ;  in  man  nothing  is  great  but  mind  ;  then  may 
knowledge  of  the  universe  be  regarded  as  the  true  measure  of 
progress.     I  therefore  invite  attention  to  the  fact  that  American 


i 


tliiWrinrtiii 


ASPECrS  OF  AMERICAN  ASTROXOMV 


'■97 


as'.rononiy  began  with  your  city,  and  has  slowly  but  surely  kept 
pace  with  it  until  today  our  country  stands  second  only  to  Ger- 
many in  the  number  of  researches  being  j)rosecuted,  and  second 
to  none  in  the  number  of  men  who  have  gained  the  highest 
recognition  by  their  labors. 

In  1836  Professor  Albert  Hopkins,  of  Williams  College,  and 
Professor  PLiias  Loomis,  of  Western  Reserve  College,  Ohio,  both 
commenced  little  obser\atories.  Professor  Loomis  went  to 
Murope  for  all  his  instruments,  but  Hopkins  was  able  even  then 
to  get  some  of  his  in  this  country.  Shortly  afterward  a  little 
wooden  structure  was  erected  by  Captain  (iilliss  on  Capitol  Hill 
at  Wasnington,  and  supplied  with  a  transit  instrument  for  observ- 
ing Moon  culminations  in  conjunction  with  Ca|)tain  Wilkes,  who 
was  then  setting  out  on  his  exploring  expedition  to  the  southern 
hemisphere.  The  date  of  these  observatories  was  jjractically  the 
same  as  that  on  which  a  charter  for  the  city  of  Chicago  was 
obtained  from  the  legislature.  With  their  establishment  the 
population  of   your  city  had   increased   to   703. 

The  next  decade,  1840  to  1850,  was  that  in  which  our  prac- 
tical astronomy  seriously  commenced.  The  little  observatory 
of  Captain  Gilliss  was  replaced  by  the  Naval  Observatory,  erected 
at  Washington  during  the  years  1843-4  and  fitted  out  with  what 
were  then  the  most  approved  instruments.  About  the  same  time 
the  apjjearance  of  the  great  comet  of  1S43  '"-"tl  the  citizens  of 
Boston  to  erect  the  Observatory  of  Harvard  College.  Thus  it  is 
little  more  than  a  half  century  since  the  two  principal  observa- 
tories in  tlie  United  States  were  established.  But  we  must  not 
for  a  moment  suj^pose  that  the  mere  erection  of  an  observatory 
can  mark  an  epoch  in  scientific  history.  What  must  have  made 
the  decade  of  which  I  speak  ever  memorable  in  American  astron- 
omy was  not  merely  the  erection  of  buildings,  but  the  character 
of  the  work  done  by  astronomers  away  from  them  as  well  as  in 
them. 

The  Naval  Observatory  very  soon  became  famous  by  two 
remarkable  steps  which  raised  our  country  to  an  important  posi- 
tion among  those  applying  modern  science  to  practical  uses.  One 


-.    M. 


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mmlmt 


nttwmriit 


wmammm 


I 


298 


SIM  ox  NEWCOMIi 


of  these  consisted  of  the  researches  of  Sears  Cook  Walker  on  the 
motion  of  the  newly  discovered  planet  Nej>tune.  He  was  the 
first  astronomer  to  determine  fairly  good  elements  of  the  orbit 
of  that  planet,  and,  what  is  yet  more  remarkable,  he  was  able  to 
trace  back  the  movement  of  the  planet  in  the  heavens  for  half  a 
century,  and  to  show  that  it  had  been  observed  as  a  fixed  star  by 
Lalande  in  1795,  without  the  observer  having  any  suspicion  of 
the  true  character  of  the  object. 

The  other  work  to  which  I  refer  was  the  application  to  astron- 
omy and  to  the  determination  of  longitudes  of  the  chronographic 
method  of  registering  transits  of  stars  or  other  phenomena 
rc(]uiring  an  exact  record  of  the  instant  of  their  occurrence.  It 
is  to  be  regretted  that  the  history  of  this  application  has  not 
been  fully  written.  In  some  points  there  seems  to  be  as  much 
obscurity  as  with  the  discovery  of  ether  as  an  anaesthetic,  which 
took  place  about  the  same  time.  Happily  no  such  contest  has 
been  fought  over  the  astronomical  as  over  the  surgical  discovery — 
the  fact  being  that  all  who  were  engaged  in  the  application 
of  the  new  method  were  more  anxious  to  perfect  it  than  they 
were  to  get  credit  for  themselves.  We  know  that  Saxton  of 
the  Coast  Survey,  Mitchell  and  Locke,  of  Cincinnati,  Bond  at 
Cambridge,  as  well  as  Walker  and  other  astronomers  at  the 
Naval  Observatory,  all  worked  at  the  apparatus,  that  Maury  sec- 
onded their  efforts  with  untiring  zeal,  that  it  was  used  to  deter- 
mine the  longitude  of  Baltimore  as  early  as  1844  by  Captain 
Wilkes,  and  that  it  was  put  into  practical  use  in  recording 
observations  at  the  Naval  Observatory  as  early  as  1846. 

At  the  Cambridge  Observatory  the  two  Bonds,  father  and 
son,  speedily  began  to  show  the  stuff  of  which  the  astronomer 
is  made.  A  well -devised  system  of  observations  was  put  in 
operation.  The  discovery  of  the  dark  ring  of  Saturn  and  of  a 
new  satellite  to  that  planet  gave  additional  fame  to  the  estab- 
lishment. 

Nor  was  activity  confined  to  the  observational  side  of  the 
science.  The  same  decade  of  which  I  speak  was  marked  by  the 
beginning  of  Professor  Pierce's  mathematical  work,  especially 


ASPECTS  OF  AMERICAN  ASTRONOMY 


299 


his  determination  of  the  perturbations  of  Uranus  and  Neptune. 
At  this  time  commenced  the  work  of  Dr.  H.  A.  Gould,  who  soon 
became  the  leading  figure  in  American  astronomy.  Immediately 
on  graduating  at  Harvard  in  1845,  h<=  determined  to  devote  all 
the  energies  of  his  life  to  the  prosecution  of  his  favorite  science. 
Me  studied  in  Europe  for  three  years,  took  the  doctor's  degree 
at  Gottingen.  came  home,  founded  the  Astronomical  Journal,  and 
took  an  active  part  in  that  branch  of  the  work  of  the  Coast  Sur- 
vey which  included  the  determination  of  longitudes  by  astro- 
nomical methods. 

An  episode  which  may  not  belong  to  the  history  of  astronomy 
must  be  acknowledged  to  have  had  a  powerful  influence  in 
exciting  public  interest  in  that  science.  Professor  O.  M.  Mitchell, 
the  founder  and  first  director  of  the  Cincinnati  Observatory, 
made  the  masses  of  our  intelligent  people  accpiainted  with  the 
leading  facts  of  astronomy  by  courses  of  lectures  which,  in 
lucidity  and  ekKjuence,  have  never  been  excelled.  The  imme- 
diate object  of  the  lectures  was  to  raise  funds  for  establishing 
his  ob.servatorv  and  fitting  it  out  with  a  fine  telescope.  The 
po|)ular  interest  thus  excited  in  the  science  had  an  important 
effect  in  leading  the  public  to  support  astronomical  research.  If 
jjublic  support,  based  on  public  interest,  is  what  has  made  the 
present  fabric  of  American  astronomy  possible,  then  should  we 
honor  the  name  of  a  man  whose  enthusiasm  leavened  the  masses 
of  his  countrymen  with  interest  in  our  science. 

The  Civil  War  naturally  exerted  a  depressing  influence  upon 
our  scientific  activity.  The  cultivator  of  knowledge  is  no  less 
patriotic  than  his  fellow-citizens,  and  vies  with  them  in  devotion 
to  the  public  welfare.  The  active  interest  which  such  cultivators 
took,  first  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war  and  then  in  the  restora- 
tion of  the  unioi),  naturally  distracted  their  attention  from  their 
favorite  pursuits.  But  no  sooner  was  political  stability  reached 
than  a  wave  of  intellectual  activity  set  in,  which  has  gone  on 
increasing  up  to  the  present  time.  If  it  be  true  that  never 
before  in  our  history  has  so  much  attention  been  given  to 
education  as  now ;  that  never  before  did  so  many  men  devote 


300 


SIMON  NEIVCOMB 


% 


themselves  to  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  it  is  no  less  true  that 
never  was  astronomical  work  so  energetically  pursued  among  us 
as  now. 

One  deplorable  result  of  the  Civil  War  was  that  Gould's  Astro- 
nomical Jounuil  had  to  be  suspended.  Shortly  after  the  restora- 
tion of  j)cacc,  instead  of  reestablishing  the  journal,  its  founder 
conceived  the  project  of  cx|)loring  the  southern  heavens.  The 
northern  hemisphere  being  the  seat  of  civilization,  that  portion 
of  the  sky  which  could  not  be  seen  from  our  latitudes  was  com- 
paratively neglected.  What  had  been  done  in  the  southern  hem- 
isj)here  was  mostly  the  occasional  work  of  individuals  and  of 
one  or  two  permanent  obscr\atories.  The  latter  were  so  few  in 
number  and  so  meager  in  their  outfit  that  a  splendid  field  was 
open  to  the  incpiirer.  Gould  found  the  patron  which  he  desired 
in  the  government  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  on  whose  territory 
he  erected  what  must  rank  in  the  future  as  one  of  the  memorable 
astronomical  establishments  of  the  world.  His  work  affords  a 
most  striking  exami)le  of  the  princijile  that  the  astronomer  is 
more  important  than  his  instruments.  Not  only  were  the  means 
at  the  command  of  the  Argentine  Observatory  slender  in  the 
extreme  when  compared  with  those  of  the  favored  institutions  of 
the  North,  but,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  the  Argentine 
Republic  could  not  sup])lv  trained  astronomers.  The  difficulties 
thus  growing  out  of  the  administration  cannot  be  overestimated. 
And  vet  the  sixteen  great  volumes  in  which  the  work  of  the 
institution  has  been  published  will  rank  in  the  future  among  the 
classics  of  astronomv. 

Another  wonderful  focus  of  activity,  in  which  one  hardly 
knows  whether  he  ought  most  to  admire  the  exhaustless  energy 
or  the  admirable  ingenuity  which  he  finds  displayed,  is  the  Har- 
vard Observatory.  Its  work  has  been  aided  by  gifts  which  have 
no  parallel  in  the  liberality  that  prompted  them.  Yet  without 
energy  and  skill  such  gifts  would  have  been  useless.  The 
activity  of  the  establishment  includes  both  hemispheres.  Time 
would  fail  to  tell  how  it  has  not  only  mapped  out  important 
regions  of  the  heavens  from  the  north  to  the  south  pole,  but 


I 
I 


I 


m^k 


ASPECTS  OF  AMERICAN  ASTRONOMY 


301 


I 


analyzed  the  rays  of  light  which  come  from  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  stars  by  recording  their  spectra  in  permanence  on  pho- 
tographic plates. 

The  work  of  the  establishment  is  so  organized  that  a  new 
star  cannot  appear  in  any  part  of  the  heavens,  nor  a  known  star 
undergo  any  noteworthy  change,  without  immediate  detection 
by  the  photographic  eye  of  one  or  more  little  telescopes,  all 
seeing  and  never  sleeping  policemen,  that  scan  the  heavens 
unceasingly  while  the  astronomer  may  sleep,  and  report  in  the 
morning  every  case  of  irregularity  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
heavenly  bodies. 

Yet  another  example,  showing  what  great  results  may  be 
obtained  with  limited  means  is  afforded  by  the  Lick  Observatory, 
on  Mount  Hamilton,  California.  During  the  ten  years  of  its 
activity  its  astronomers  have  made  it  known  the  world  over  by 
works  and  discoveries  too  varied  and  numerous  to  be  even  men- 
tioned at  the  moment. 

The  astronomical  work  of  which  1  have  thus  far  spoken  has 
been  almost  entirely  that  done  at  observatories.  I  tear  that  I 
mav  in  this  way  have  strengthened  an  erroneous  impression  that 
the  seat  of  important  astronomical  work  is  necessarily  connected 
with  an  observatorv.  In  must  be  admitted  that  an  institution 
which  has  a  local  habitation  and  a  magnificent  building  com- 
mands public  attention  so  strongly  that  valuable  work  done 
elsewhere  may  be  overlooked.  A  very  imj)ortant  j)art  of  astro- 
nomical work  is  done  away  from  telescopes  and  meridian  circles, 
and  requires  nothing  but  a  good  library  for  its  i)rosecut:on.  One 
who  is  devoted  to  this  side  of  the  subject  may  often  feel  that 
the  public  does  not  a])preciate  his  work  at  its  true  relative  \alue, 
from  the  very  fact  that  he  has  no  great  buildings  or  fine  instru- 
ments to  show.  I  may,  therefore,  be  allowed  to  claim  as  an 
important  factor  in  the  American  astronomy  of  the  last  half 
century  an  institution  of  which  few  have  heard  and  which  has 
been  overlooked  because  there  was  nothing  about  it  to  excite 
attention. 

In    1849    the  American   Nnuticol   Almanac   office  was  estab- 


30^ 


S/AfOA'  N Ely  COMB 


lished  by  a  congressional  appropriation.  The  title  of  this  pub- 
lication is  somewhat  misleading  in  suggesting  a  simple  enlarge- 
ment of  the  family  almanac  which  the  sailor  is  to  hang  up  in  his 
cabin  for  daily  use.  The  fact  is  that  what  started  more  than  a 
century  ago  as  a  nautical  almanac  has  since  grown  into  an 
astronomical  ephemcris  for  the  publication  of  everything  per- 
taining to  times,  seasons,  eclipses  and  the  motions  of  the  heav- 
enly bodies.  It  is  the  work  in  which  astronomical  observations 
made  in  all  the  great  observatories  of  the  world  are  ultimately 
utilized  for  scientific  and  public  purposes.  Each  of  the  leading 
nations  of  western  Europe  issues  such  a  publication.  When  the 
preparation  and  publication  of  the  American  ephemeris  was 
decided  upon  the  office  was  first  established  in  Cambridge,  the 
seat  of  Harvard  University,  because  there  could  most  readily  be 
secured  the  technical  knowledge  of  mathematics  and  theoretical 
astronomy  necessary  for  the  work. 

A  field  of  activity  was  thus  opened,  of  which  a  number  of  able 
young  men  who  have  since  earned  distinction  in  various  walks 
of  life  availed  themselves.  The  head  of  the  office,  Commander 
Davis,  adopted  a  policy  well  fitted  to  promote  their  develop- 
ment. He  translated  the  classic  work  of  Gauss,  Thcoria  Motus 
Corporum  Ccclestium,  and  made  the  office  a  sort  of  informal 
school,  not,  indeed,  of  the  modern  type,  but  rather  more  like 
the  classic  grove  of  Hellas,  where  philosophers  conducted 
their  discussions  and  profited  by  mutual  attrition.  When,  after 
a  few  years  of  experience,  methods  were  well  established  and 
a  routine  adopted,  the  office  was  removed  to  Washington,  where 
it  has  since  remained.  The  work  of  preparing  the  ephemeris 
has,  with  experience,  been  reduced  to  a  matter  of  routine  which 
may  be  continued  indefinitely,  with  occasional  changes  in  meth- 
ods and  data  and  improvements  to  meet  the  increasing  wants  of 
investigators. 

The  mere  preparation  of  the  ephemeris  includes  but  a  small 
part  of  the  work  of  mathematical  calculation  and  investigation 
required  in  astronomy.  One  of  the  great  wants  of  the  science 
today  is  the  re-reduction  of  the  observations  made  during  the 


ASPECTS  OF  AMERICAN  ASVA'OAVJ/y 


303 


first  half  of  the  present  century,  and  even  during  the  last  half  of 
the  preceding  one.  The  labor  which  could  profitably  be  devoted 
to  this  v/ork  would  be  more  than  that  required  in  any  one  astro- 
nomical observatory.  It  is  unfortunate  for  this  work  that  a 
great  building  is  not  required  for  its  prosecution  because  its 
needfulness  is  thus  very  generally  overlooked  by  that  portion 
of  the  public  interested  in  the  progress  of  science.  An  organi- 
zation especially  devoted  to  it  is  one  of  the  scientific  needs  of 
our  time. 

In  such  an  epoch-making  age  as  the  present  it  is  dangerous 
to  cite  any  one  step  as  making  a  new  epoch.  Yet  it  may  be  that 
when  the  historian  of  the  future  reviews  the  science  of  our  day 
he  will  find  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  the  astronomy  of  the 
last  twenty  years  of  our  century  to  be  the  discovery  that  this 
steadfast  P3arth  of  which  the  poets  have  told  us  is  not  after  all 
quite  steadfast  ;  that  the  north  and  south  |)oles  move  about  a 
very  little,  describing  curves  so  complicated  that  they  have  not 
yet  been  fully  marked  out.  The  periodic  variations  of  latitude 
thus  brought  about  were  first  suspected  about  1880,  and 
announced  with  some  modest  assurance  by  Kiistner,  of  Berlin,  a 
few  years  later.  The  progress  of  the  views  of  astronomical 
opinion  from  incredulity  to  confidence  was  extremely  slow  until, 
about  1890,  Chandler,  of  the  United  States,  by  an  exhaustive 
discussion  of  innumerable  results  of  observations  showed  that 
the  latitude  of  every  point  on  the  Earth  was  subject  to  a 
double  oscillation,  one  having  a  period  of  a  year,  the  other  of 
427  days. 

Notwithstanding  the  remarkable  parallel  between  the  growth 
of  American  astronomy  and  that  of  your  city,  one  cannot  but 
fear  that  if  a  foreign  observer  had  been  asked  only  half  a  dozen 
years  ago  at  what  point  in  the  United  States  a  great  school  of 
theoretical  and  practical  astronomy,  aided  by  an  establishment 
for  the  exploration  of  the  heavens,  was  likely  to  be  established 
by  the  munificence  of  private  citizens,  he  would  have  been  wiser 
than  mosl  foreigners  had  he  guessed  Chicago.  Had  this  place 
been  suggested  to  him  I  fear  he  would  have  replied  that  were 


304 


S/MOy  NKWCOMR 


'■ 


it  possible  to  utili/c  celestial  knowledge  in  acquiring  earthly 
wealth  here  would  be  the  most  promising  seat  for  such  a  school. 
But  he  would  need  to  have  been  a  little  wiser  than  his  generation 
to  reflect  that  wealth  is  at  the  base  of  all  progress  in  knowledge 
and  the  liberal  arts,  that  it  is  only  when  men  are  relieved  from 
the  necessity  of  devoting  all  their  energies  to  the  immediate 
wants  of  life  that  they  can  lead  intellectual  lives,  and  that  we 
should  therefore  look  to  the  most  enterprising  commercial  cen- 
ter as  the  likeliest  seat  for  a  great  scientific  institution. 

Now  we  have  the  school,  and  we  have  the  Observatory, 
which  we  hope  will  in  the  near  future  do  work  that  will  cast 
luster  on  the  name  of  its  founder  as  well  as  on  the  astronomers 
who  may  be  associated  with  it.  You  will,  I  am  sure,  pardon  me 
if  I  make  some  suggestions  on  the  subject  of  the  future  needs 
of  the  establishment.  VVc  want  this  newly  founded  institution 
to  be  a  great  success,  to  do  work  which  shall  show  that  the 
intellectual  productiveness  of  your  community  will  not  be 
allowed  to  lag  behind  its  material  growth.  The  public  is  very 
apt  to  feel  that  when  some  munificent  patron  of  science  has 
mounted  a  great  telescope  under  a  suitable  dome  and  sujjplied 
all  the  apparatus  which  the  astronomer  wants  to  use  success  is 
assured.  But  such  is  not  the  case.  The  most  important  requis- 
ite, one  more  difificult  to  command  than  telescopes  or  observa- 
tories, may  still  be  wanting.  A  great  telescope  is  of  no  use 
without  a  man  at  the  end  of  it,  and  what  the  telescope  may  do 
depends  more  upon  this  appendage  than  upon  the  instrument 
itself.  The  place  which  telescopes  and  observatories  have  taken 
in  astronomical  history  are  by  no  means  proportional  to  their 
dimensions.  Many  a  great  instrument  has  been  a  mere  toy  in 
the  hands  of  its  owner.  Many  a  small  one  has  become  famous. 
Twenty  years  ago  there  was  here  in  your  own  city  a  modest 
little  instrument  which,  judged  by  its  size,  could  not  hold  up  its 
head  with  the  great  ones  even  of  that  day. 

It  was  the  private  property  of  a  young  man  holding  no 
scientific  position  and  scarcely  known  to  the  public.  And  yet 
that  little  telescope  \h  today  among  the  famous  ones  of  the  world, 


i 


J 


*i 


ASPKCTS  OF  AMERICA  A  ASIROA'OMY 


305 


having  made  memorable  advances  in  the  astronomy  of  doul)le 
stars,  and  siiown  its  owner  to  be  a  worthy  successor  of  tlie  Hcr- 
schels  and  tlie  Stnives  in  that  Hne  of  work.  A  hundred  observers 
migiit  liave  used  the  appliances  of  the  Lick  Observatory  for  a 
whole  generation  without  finding  the  fifth  satellite  of  Jupiter ; 
without  successfuliv  photographing  the  cloud  forms  of  the  Milky 
Wav  ;  without  discovering  the  extraordinary  jjatches  of  nebu- 
lous light,  nearlv  or  cpiite  invisible  to  the  human  eye,  which  fill 
some  regions  of  the  heavens. 

When  I  was  in  Zurich  last  year  I  paid  a  visit  to  the  little 
but  not  unknown  observatory  of  its  famous  polytechnic  school. 
The  professor  of  astronomy  was  especially  interested  in  the 
observations  of  the  Sun  with  the  aid  of  the  spectroscope,  and 
among  the  ingenious  devices  which  he  described,  not  the  least 
interesting  was  the  method  of  photographing  the  Sun  by  special 
rays  of  the  spectruni  which  had  been  worked  out  at  the  Kenwood 
Observatorv  in  Chicago.  The  Kenwood  Observatory  is  not,  1 
believe,  in  the  eye  of  the  public  one  of  the  noteworthy  institutions 
of  your  citv  which  every  visitor  is  taken  to  see,  and  yet  this  inven- 
tion has  given  it  an  important  place  in  the  science  of  our  day. 

Should  you  ask  me  what  are  the  most  hopeful  features  in  the 
great  establishment  which  you  are  now  dedicating  I  would  say 
that  they  are  not  alone  to  be  found  in  the  size  of  your  unetjualed 
telescope,  nor  in  the  cost  of  the  outfit,  but  in  the  fact  that  your 
authorities  have  shown  their  appreciation  of  the  recjuirements  of 
success  by  adding  to  the  material  outfit  of  the  establishment  the 
three  men  whose  works  I  have  described. 

Gentlemen  of  the  trustees,  allow  me  to  commend  to  your 
fostering  care  the  men  at  the  end  of  the  telescope.  The  consti- 
tution of  the  astronomer  shows  curious  and  interesting  features. 
If  he  is  destined  to  advance  the  science  by  works  of  real  genius 
he  must,  like  the  poet,  be  born,  not  made.  The  born  astrono- 
mer, when  placed  in  command  of  a  telescope,  goes  about  using 
it  as  naturally  and  effectively  as  the  babe  avails  itself  of  its 
mother's  breast.  He  sees  intuitively  what  less  gifted  men  have 
to  learn  by  long  study  and  tedious  experiment.      He   is  moved 


3o6 


s/.v/ox  X/:iVCOA/ff 


to  celestial  knowledjre  by  a  passion  which  dominates  his  nature. 
He  can  no  more  avoid  doinj;-  astronomical  work,  whether  in  the 
line  of  observations  o"  research,  than  the  poet  can  chain  his 
Pegasus  to  earth.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  education  and 
training  will  be  no  use  to  him.  They  will  certainly  accelerate 
his  early  progress.  If  he  is  to  become  great  on  the  mathemati- 
cal side,  not  only  must  his  genius  have  a  bend  in  that  direction, 
but  he  must  have  the  means  of  pursuing  his  studies.  And  yet  I 
have  seen  so  many  failures  of  men  who  had  the  best  instruction, 
and  so  many  successes  of  men  who  scarcely  learned  anything  of 
their  teachers,  that  I  sometimes  ask  whether  the  great  American 
celestial  mechanician  of  the  twentieth  century  will  be  a  graduate 
of  a  university  or  of  the  backwoods. 

Is  the  man  thus  moved  to  the  exploration  of  nature  by  an 
uncontiuerable  passion  more  to  be  envied  or  pitied  ?  In  no  other 
pursuit  does  success  come  with  such  certainty  ^o  him  who 
deserves  it.  No  life  is  so  enjoyable  as  that  whose  energies  are 
devoted  to  following  out  the  inborn  impulses  of  one's  nature. 
The  investigator  of  truth  is  little  subject  to  the  disappoint- 
ments which  await  the  ainbitous  man  in  other  fields  of  activ- 
ity. It  is  pleasant  to  be  one  of  a  brotherhood  extending 
over  the  world,  in  which  no  rivalry  exists  except  that  which 
comes  out  of  trying  to  do  better  work  than  anyone  else,  while 
mutual  admiration  stifles  jealousy.  And  yet,  with  all  these 
advantages,  the  experience  of  the  astronomer  may  have  its  dark 
side.  As  he  sees  his  field  widening  faster  than  he  can  advance 
he  is  impressed  with  the  littleness  of  all  that  can  be  done  in  one 
short  life.  He  feels  the  same  want  of  successors  to  pursue 
his  work  that  the  founder  of  a  dynasty  may  feel  for  heirs  to 
occupy  his  throne.  He  has  no  desire  to  figure  in  history  as  a 
Napoleon  of  science  whose  conquests  must  terminate  with  his 
life.  Even  during  his  active  career  his  work  may  be  of  such  a 
kind  as  to  require  the  cooperation  of  others  and  the  active  sup-  . 
port  of  the  public.  If  he  is  disappointed  in  commanding  these 
requirements,  if  he  finds  neither  cooperation  nor  support,  if  some 
great  scheme  to  which  he  may  have  devoted  much  of  his  life 


ASI'KCrS  OF  AM  ERIC  AX  ASTROSOMY 


307 


tlius  proves  to  l)e  only  a  castle  in  the  air,  he  may  feel  that  nature 
has  dealt  hardly  witli  him  in  not  endowing  liim  with  passions 
like  to  those  of  other  men. 

In  treating  a  theme  of  |)erennial  interest  one  naturally  tries 
to  fancy  what  the  future  may  have  in  store.  If  the  traveler  con- 
templating the  ruins  of  some  ancient  city  which  in  the  long  ago 
teemed  with  the  life  and  activities  of  generations  of  men  sees 
every  stone  instinct  with  emotion  and  the  dust  alive  with  memo- 
ries of  the  past,  may  he  not  be  similarly  impressed  when  he  feels 
that  he  is  looking  around  upon  a  seat  of  future  empire ;  a  region 
where  generations  yet  unborn  may  take  a  leading  part  in  mold- 
ing the  history  of  the  v/orld  ?  What  may  we  not  expect  of  that 
energv  which  in  sixty  years  has  transformed  a  straggling  village 
into  one  of  the  world's  great  centers  of  commerce?  May  it  not 
exercise  a  powerful  influence  on  the  destiny  not  only  of  the  coun- 
try but  of  the  world?  If  so,  shall  the  power  thus  to  be  exercised 
prove  an  agent  of  beneficence,  diffusing  light  and  life  among 
nations,  or  shall  it  be  the  opposite? 

The  time  must  come  ere  long  when  wealth  shall  outgrow  the 
field  in  which  it  can  be  profitably  employed.  In  what  direction 
shall  its  possessors  then  look  ?  Shall  they  train  a  posterity 
which  will  so  use  its  power  as  to  make  the  world  belter  that  it 
has  lived  in  it?  Will  the  future  heir  to  great  wealth  prefer  the 
intellectual  life  to  the  life  of  pleasure  ? 

We  can  have  no  more  hopeful  answer  to  these  questions  than 
the  establishment  of  this  great  University  in  the  very  focus  of  the 
commercial  activity  of  the  West.  Its  connection  with  the  insti- 
tution we  have  been  dedicating  suggests  some  thoughts  on 
science  as  a  factor  in  that  scheme  of  education  best  adapted  to 
make  the  power  of  a  wealthy  community  a  benefit  to  the  race  at 
large.  When  we  see  what  a  factor  science  has  been  in  our  pres- 
ent civilization,  how  it  has  transformed  the  world  and  increased 
the  means  of  human  enjoyment  by  enabling  men  to  apply  the 
l)owers  of  nature  to  their  own  uses,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  it 
should  claim  the  place  in  education  hitherto  held  by  classical 
studies.     In  the  contest  which  has  thus  arisen  I  take  no  part  but 


.{JV- 


I 


30S 


S/.UOX  NEWCOMH 


tliat  ol  a  |>c;ucmakcr.  lioldiiiLr  that  it  is  as  important  to  us  to  keep 
in    touch   with    tlic  traditions  of  our  race   and    to    cherish    tlic 
thouj,dits  which  have  conic  down  to  us  throuj^h  the  centuries  as 
it  is  to  enjoy  and  utilize  what  the  present  has  to  offer  us.     Speak- 
in^f  from  this  point  of  view.  I  would  point  out  the  error  of  mak- 
ing the  utilitarian  applications  of  knowledjre  the  main  object  in 
its  pursuit.      It  is  a  historic   fact   th.lt  abstract   science,  science 
pursued  without  any  utilita -ian  end,  has  been  at  the  basis  of  our 
progress  in  the  ap|)lication  of  knowl'.-dge.     If  in  the  la.st  century 
such  men  as  Galvani  and  Volta  had   been  moved  by  any  other 
motive  tiian  love  of  penetrating  the  secrets  of  nature  they  would 
never  have  pursued  the  seemingly  useless  experiments  they  did, 
and  the  foundation  of  electrical  science  would  not  have  been  laid. 
Our  present  applications  of  electricity  did  not  become  possible 
until  Ohm's  mathematical  laws  of  the  electric  current,  which  when 
first  made  known  seemed  little  more  than  mathematical  curiosi- 
ties, hail  become  the  common  property  of  inventors.      Profes- 
sional pride  on  the  part  of  our  own  Henry  led  him,  after  making 
the  discoveries  which   rendered  the  telegraph   possible,  to  go  no 
further  in  their  application,  and  to  live  and  die  without  receiving 
a  dollar  of  the  millions  which  the  country  has  won  through  his 
agcncv. 

In  the  spirit  of  scientific  progres"  thus  shown,  we  have  patri- 
otism in  its  highest  form  :  a  sentiment  which  does  not  seek  to 
benefit  the  country  at  the  exiJcnse  of  the  world,  but  to  benefit 
the  world  by  means  of  one's  country.  Science  has  its  competi- 
tion, as  keen  as  that  which  is  the  life  of  commerce.  But  its 
rivalries  are  over  the  qucsdon  who  shall  contribute  the  most  and 
the  best  to  the  sum  total  of  knowledgc^who  shall  give  the  most, 
not  who  shall  take  the  most.  Its  animating  spirit  is  love  of  truth. 
Its  pride  is  to  do  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number.  It 
embraces  not  only  the  whole  human  race,  but  all  nature  in  its 
scope.  The  public  spirit  of  which  this  city  is  the  focus  has 
made  the  desert  blossom  as  Hie  rose,  and  benefited  humanity  by 
the  diffusion  of  the  material  products  of  the  earth.  Should  vou 
ask  me  how   it  is  in  the    future  to  use    its  influence   for  the 


. 


^ 


V 


AS/'KCrS  OF  AMERICAN  ASTKONOAfV 


309 


benefit  of  humanity  at  larj,a-,  1  would  say,  look  at  the  work- 
now  ^inn\r  on  in  these  precincts,  and  study  its  spirit.  Here  are 
the  agencies  which  will  make  "the  voice  of  law  »»4  harmonv 
of  the  world."  Here  is  the  love  of  country  blended  with  the 
love  of  the  race.  Here  the  love  of  knowledge  is  as  unconfined  as 
your  commercial  enterprise.  Let  not  your  youth  come  hither 
merely  to  learn  the  forms  of  vertebrates  and  the  properties  of 
oxides,  but  rather  toimuibe  that  catholic  spirit  which,  animating 
their  ever  grftntrMW  energies,  shall  make  the  power  they  shall 
wield  an  agent  of  beneficence  to  all  mankind. 


^ 


f^^^vd^ 


302 


S/A/OA  NEll'COMB 


lished  by  a  congressional  ajjpropriation.  The  title  of  this  pub- 
lication is  somewhat  misleading  in  suggesting  a  simple  enlarge- 
ment of  the  family  almanac  which  the  sailor  is  to  hang  up  in  his 
cabin  for  daily  use.  The  fact  is  that  what  started  more  than  a 
century  ago  as  a  nautical  almanac  has  since  grown  into  an 
astronomical  ephemcris  for  the  publication  of  everything  per- 
taining to  times,  seasons,  eclipses  and  the  motions  of  the  heav- 
enly bodies.  It  is  the  work  in  which  astronomical  observations 
made  in  all  the  great  observatories  of  the  world  are  ultimately 
utilized  for  scientific  and  public  purposes.  Each  of  the  leading 
nations  of  western  Europe  issues  such  a  publication.  When  the 
preparation  and  publication  of  the  American  ephemeris  was 
decided  upon  the  office  was  first  established  in  Cambridge,  the 
seat  of  Harvard  Universit}-,  because  there  could  most  readily  be 
secured  the  technical  knowledge  of  mathematics  and  theoretical 
astronomy  necessary  for  the  work. 

A  field  of  activity  was  thus  opened,  of  which  a  number  of  able 
young  men  who  have  since  earned  distinction  in  various  walks 
of  life  availed  themselves.  The  head  of  the  office.  Commander 
Davis,  adopted  a  policy  well  fitted  to  promote  their  develop- 
ment. He  translated  the  classic  work  of  Gauss,  Theoria  Motus 
Corporum  Ccclestium,  and  made  the  office  a  sort  of  informal 
school,  not,  indeed,  of  the  modern  type,  but  rather  more  like 
the  classic  grove  of  Hellas,  where  philosophers  conducted 
their  discussions  and  profited  by  mutual  attrition.  When,  after 
a  few  years  of  experience,  methods  were  well  established  and 
a  routine  adopted,  the  office  was  removed  to  Washington,  where 
it  has  since  remained.  The  work  of  preparing  the  ephemeris 
has,  with  experience,  been  reduced  to  a  matter  of  routine  which 
may  be  continued  indefinitely,  with  occasional  changes  in  meth- 
ods and  data  and  improvements  to  meet  the  increasing  wants  of 
investigators. 

The  mere  preparation  of  the  ephemeris  includes  but  a  small 
part  of  the  work  of  mathematical  calculation  and  investigation 
required  in  astronomy.  One  of  the  great  wants  of  the  science 
today  is  the  re-reduction  of  the  observations  made  during  the 


